Food and Water Storage At Home

As you are acquiring extra food storage, where do you put it all? Most typical homes have ample storage space for preps like extra food and water – but you might need to get creative…

Food Storage Locations

It is very important to find locations that will not adversely affect your food storage. Look for places that are cool (at least not hot), dry, and out of direct sunlight.

High temperature is the worst enemy of food storage and will quickly reduce the shelf life expectancy. If you have a basement that is not notoriously damp, it will be an ideal place to store your extra food – it’s always cooler down there. Excessive basement dampness though will rust your cans, seep into cardboard packaging and will ruin foods that are not sealed. You might consider a dehumidifier or find another location.

Find locations where the foods are not in the Sun’s rays at all during the day. Avoid attic spaces because they often get quite hot during summer months.

If space is hard to find, consider unconventional storage locations for your food items. One simple solution is to purchase plastic storage bins that are sized such that they will slide right underneath a bed frame.

The variability in sizes of plastic storage containers will allow you to efficiently and neatly stack and store foods in places like closets, under a table, corners, shelves, behind a couch, under a coffee table, etc. You might inconspicuously cover a few boxes or bins with a blanket or drape tablecloth material over it to cover and hide it in plain sight.

Another consideration is, ‘convenience’. Since successful food storage requires effective food rotation, keeping some or all of your food storage within easy access will help to maintain that practice.

Maybe your home has lots of clutter and ‘stuff’ that you don’t need or don’t use anymore – especially in locations like your basement and closets which tend to collect things that you don’t use often. You might clear some of it out and get rid of it to make room for food storage and such.

Water Storage Locations

Depending on where you live, and your proximity to a natural water source, you should consider storing some amount of drinking water (minimum 1-gallon per person per day). It’s easy to do. You can clean and use plastic ‘soda’ bottles, you could simply buy a bunch of bottled water (expensive), you could buy purpose-built water storage containers (they’re typically colored blue and are ‘food grade’), or you could even use food-grade 5-gallon buckets with gamma-seal lids.

Remember though – water is heavy – about 8-pounds per gallon. Where could you store these water containers? Wherever you can… Try to keep it away from heat and sunlight.

7 Comments

Freeze 2 liter bottles. Full freezer runs less, power loss help keep things cold plus drinking water. bottles easily removed and replaced as you add or remove food from freezer. I use as ice in coolers also .

That’s a great idea, thanks – also remember when filling the bottle to leave a 10% air-space for expansion (in other words don’t fill to the very top). The ice (volume) expansion is actually less than 10%, but it’s a good rule-of-thumb.

If someone has been storing food in plastic tubs for 15 years and there is mold and moisture inside the tubs, do I have to worry about this being toxic when I dispose of it? Can I put the tubs into the garbage? And other than a mask, do I have to worry about this being toxic while I am cleaning this closet out?

wipe down area where tubs were sitting with javex water (to kill the mold), then wipe down again with water which has some type of oil based cleaner in it (pinesol/Mr Clean etc). The javex kills the mold, but it is the oil based cleaner which discourages mold fr regrowing.

if you had mold in these tubs, and opened them (how else would you know there is mold, right?), some mold spores always escape, so important to wipe down areas possibly exposed.
go outside and take frequent breaths fresh air, so fumes don’t bother lungs.

Several Water Bricks more as I can
Water BOB for bathtub Couldn’t the bathtub be used by itself…Couldn’t the water BOB be used to fill by itself?
Two 55 gal that I need to have someone hook up to downspouts
I am collecting largeArizona Tea containers with water
8 gallons of water in large bottles
Other liquids…Some bottles of juice, V8, case of flavored water

All for one person, as much as I can do now, but adding to it

Above it indicates that most houses have storage space for food and water. HOuses in California, especially my area extremely expensive and not as large. I definitely have ample space to store food & water, but finding spaces to hide large quantities is very diffiicult. That seems to me to be my biggest problem. I have some creative places for small items, perhaps a can or two at a time.

I’m trying to figure out a way to close off an end of one of my closets… Have someone construct a larger wood step outside my bedroom with a storage space. I realize I can hide food items behind other items…on top of high shelves, in a planter ….but not enough to hide even what I already have. Any ideas are appreciated.